


teething

by catbrains



Series: baby blue // little!stan [2]
Category: South Park
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Developing Relationship, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Hotel Transylvania (Movies) References, Little Stan, M/M, Non-Sexual Age Play, Pacifiers, and teething toys!, caregiver kyle, stan gets presents bc kyle doesn't like him chewing on his fingers, stan is sad and family issues are mentioned, the content no one asked for continues!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-09
Updated: 2020-11-09
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:08:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,235
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27480226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/catbrains/pseuds/catbrains
Summary: After what Stan calls a "bad night", Kyle worries about his habit of chewing on his fingers, and decides to buy some presents with the intention of offering a safer alternative when Stan's little.
Relationships: Kyle Broflovski/Stan Marsh
Series: baby blue // little!stan [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2007994
Comments: 5
Kudos: 46





	teething

**Author's Note:**

> hello! me again!  
> thank you so much to everyone who read my last fic in this series! it was fun to write and these two are such a great comfort so, here! more self-indulgent comfort content!
> 
> i really think little stan would love pacis and teething toys, but he'd also be very shy and embarrassed about it  
> luckily, kyle's a great boyfriend and a great caregiver too

Despite the fact that Kyle’s long past the age where his parents were monitoring his activity on the internet, as well as his money and purchases (back when his money was pocket change and his purchases all took place in a local shop that would let him and the other boys, age nine, walk in and shop by themselves), he still feels somehow paranoid that he’s going to get found out. Like his mother is going to see the charge on his bank statement and confront him, or his father will somehow find the website in his deleted search history, or Ike will open the package and snitch on him immediately to anyone who will listen, parading around the contents of the allegedly entirely discrete package and letting everyone in their tiny, godforsaken town find out.

Perhaps these thoughts would be less resented by him if they were about a purchase any normal teenage boy wouldn’t want his parents finding out about - something silly or sexual or just plain embarrassing.

It is embarrassing, he supposes. In a way. But the admission, even in his head, makes him feel guilty. He’s not embarrassed about him and Stan, and he’s not embarrassed about what Stan needs, and he’s certainly not embarrassed about Stan in general.

But he has to admit he’d be embarrassed if anyone _other_ than Stan saw the adult-sized pacifier and colourful teething toys Kyle had ordered from a shop online.

It wasn’t even a discussed purchase, which was maybe a bad idea, but Kyle had sort of reached the end of his tether very suddenly the other day when he’d glanced down at Stan’s fingers while they were doing homework together and realised that several of them were reddened and _bruised_ from the way the other boy chews on them when he’s little. Stan had tried to shrug off his concerns, flexing the brutalised digits and assuring Kyle that it didn’t hurt that bad, that last night had just been a bad night and he’d been stressed and anxious and maybe taken his comfort seeking a bit too far, but it hadn’t quelled the burning concern of a Caregiver suddenly lit deep in Kyle’s chest. He knows it’s unintentional, but Stan hurting himself leaves the worst possible taste in his mouth and he’d just wanted to seek out something that could stop it or - better yet - offer an alternative.

It’s kind of hard to find resources online when he doesn’t really know where to look, and certainly doesn’t know what’s good advice or trustworthy or will fit Stan’s specific needs and situation, but Stan’s been too distant to ask ever since his fingers first started getting bruised - backing way off like he practically always has done when he’s struggling - and it’s not like it’s a subject matter Kyle can go to anyone but Google with. 

So, he just did his best. Scouring forums and blogs and websites, and coming away with the near unanimous opinion that he just has to offer something perhaps less harmful but similar to chew on - which had led him quickly to pacifiers and teething toys. Which had _then_ led him to the discovery that such objects modified or made specifically for adults are actually...pretty common and easy to come by. They hadn’t even been that expensive, and the variety was impressive - ranging from the most basic designs in plain colours to decorative items that delight in whatever they’re representing, usually a cartoon or character or cutesy nickname. 

Kyle had had more fun than he’d probably be willing to admit scrolling through the different websites and stores of various sellers, though all the while he’d been thinking that it’d probably be a lot _more_ fun with Stan with him, either grown up to contribute to discussions on what might be helpful or little to excitedly point out things that caught his eye. It’d probably be a better situation all round, and Kyle would at least know whether he’s missing the mark entirely, but, well...Stan’s being distant.

Thankfully, at least, Kyle had long ago stopped resenting him for it, and now understands the mentality of it and why exactly Stan feels the need to do it - to push everyone away when he’s especially tired or sad or frustrated, or when outside influences (usually family, now that Wendy’s a friend and not a part of the two’s mutually toxic whatever-it-was) are dragging him down like cinder blocks.

If anything, Stan being distant has served as the most potent fuel to the fire of Kyle’s belief that this is really a good idea, and was definitely the final kick he needed to text his boyfriend to come over in the afternoon once the package was safely delivered. It’s been hidden away for several days in Kyle’s room until the opportunity arose for him and Stan to have the house to themselves again while his parents and Ike are out of town, no risk of being disturbed or discovered, though Kyle had opened the package on the very first day. He’s washed each item carefully, ensured they’re all completely clean and safe, and now they’re all waiting in the pretty, decorative little bags the seller had shipped them in the box in.

Unsurprisingly, Stan does not notice them sitting inconspicuously atop Kyle’s desk when he arrives, dressed comfortably but far too lightly for the weather. He’s got a familiarly preoccupied expression on his face, eyes tired and distant, darting around but not really looking at anything, and he is - also unsurprisingly - viciously resistant to Kyle’s immediate attempts to get him settled down and coax him into headspace. 

“We’re not fucking watching _Pokémon_ ,” he insists for the third time, glaring at the screen as Kyle’s cursor lingers over the title on the Netflix homepage. Kyle’s been really trying to make a case for it, along with a few other safe shows he knows would help Stan start dropping, but Stan’s sitting on the very edge of Kyle’s bed in the most defensive pose imaginable, like he’s visiting the room for the first time ever and also hates his boyfriend, and he doesn’t seem to be in any mood to budge in any way.

It takes everything in Kyle not to sigh.

“I like _Pokémon_ ,” he says, as if the idea that it’s for him will do absolutely anything for his case, but Stan’s still scowling even as he finally relents and starts looking through more shows. God knows what Stan’s planning on insisting on - some crime drama or horror or something, some desperate grasp at the most grown-up choice possible - but Kyle’s relenting on the _Pokémon_ front only makes him more firm in his final choice.

He presses play on _Hotel Transylvania 2_ and Stan scoffs incredulously, mouth already open to voice his complaints.

“Shut up, you like this movie,” Kyle says, because Stan does - the trilogy of movies is the go-to whenever Stan is sick or feeling bad like he is right now, whether he’s little or not, but Kyle knows there’s no chance they won’t make him drop right now. This one especially. 

They often have to be careful with the first one, because plenty of times the vampire girl’s relationship with her father is the last thing Stan needs to see, but the second is all about the baby boy - plenty more subject matter that often makes Stan quiet, but it’s ultimately a fun, silly adventure surrounding the child-friendly presentation of familial issues and the pressure of expectations. And little Stan really, really loves that he can insist that the baby in the movie, Dennis - tiny, freckled, with wild, big ginger curls - looks _just_ like Kyle.

The ridicule is worth it when Kyle gets his first smile of the day (or perhaps month) out of Stan when Dennis pops up on screen for the first time.

“It’s you,” he says, voice noticeably _soft_ even in its teasing, and a slightly clumsy hand reaches out to bury itself in Kyle’s hair, perhaps going for mocking at first but turning steeply into timid and gentle and curious as Stan suddenly drops like a stone, soothed by the texture and intimacy and familiarity of the movie playing in the background, as well as - presumably - all the bad feelings he’s been swimming in all this time. In a moment, he’s shuffling closer from where he’d first settled as far away from Kyle as possible, and then he’s clambering into Kyle’s arms like his starvation for affection had just hit him all at once, and Kyle smiles as he welcomes him eagerly, even though Stan’s all sharp, bony joints and clumsy limbs. Kyle gets a knee to the kidney somehow and what feels like six elbows in a row to the lungs, even gets his teeth clacked together by Stan accidentally headbutting his jaw, but then he’s holding Stan - really, properly holding him, for the first time in what was way, way too long - and he’s just staring unseeingly at the colours on the TV and smiling as his heart thumps.

“I missed you,” he murmurs sincerely against Stan’s messy hair, because the boy’d apparently lost his hat somewhere in the scuffle, and Stan lets out a soft noise in response. He’s buried himself against Kyle’s neck, clinging like an octopus, and Kyle just knows he’s dropped completely and he’s tiny.

It’s the best feeling in the world.

For a while, they just lay like that, letting the movie play. Kyle watches and Stan listens with his back to the TV, occasionally mumbling along to a line he knows and likes with the tongue of a small toddler, the words all half-formed and slurred. He sounds a worn-down type of exhausted, which he undoubtedly is, but instead of falling asleep he’s soon enough fidgeting and turning around so that he can watch the screen again, too invested in his favourite parts to miss seeing them, and Kyle smiles down softly at the back of his neck and rubs his side soothingly, hoping to perhaps coax him into sleep like this instead. 

Unfortunately, soon the movie is picking up, all action and racing and tension, and Stan is enraptured even though he knows exactly how it ends - but, Kyle has to admit, this was sort of part of his plan too. Because he knows exactly what Stan is doing when he shifts again, glances down just in time to see him start chewing on his fingers as per usual, harder than usual in the way he’s been doing consistently recently, and Kyle musters his courage in tandem with the call to action.

“Don’t do that,” he scolds softly, sitting up, and Stan lets out a displeased whine. It’s been a long time since Kyle gave up on really admonishing the habit, deciding perhaps it was better to just let the boy do it if it was what he found comfort in, but now he’s pulling Stan’s fingers firmly away from his mouth and absolutely not wavering even as Stan’s eyes quickly fill with tears. Absolutely, not at all wavering.

Shit.

“C’mon,” Kyle soothes, heart welling with guilt. “‘S’okay, dude, look, I got you a present, okay? Something better. Something that won’t hurt. Lemme get it.”

He drops a kiss to Stan’s temple as he clambers off of the bed, keeping eye contact as an attempt at proving that he really isn’t just abandoning the little, and he collects the few colourful little bags off of his desk to drop onto the bed.

They’re made of a thin, tulle-like material, with ribbon drawstrings holding them closed, and it becomes quickly apparent that such a manner of security is too much for Stan’s hands at the moment as he tugs fruitlessly at the first bag he grabs ahold of, quickly dissolving to high, frustrated noises as it refuses to yield to his pulling.

“C’mere,” Kyle says softly, laughing affectionately - half to cover up his anxiety at actually finally showing his purchases to his boyfriend, and he sits himself on the bed again to open each of the bags in turn, carefully and deliberately, and then place their contents onto the bed in front of Stan. 

The first is a teething ring made up of large, chewable beads, including a string of letter beads that hang off, spelling out “Stan”, and other little decorations - a rainbow ribbon and a wooden ring and a cute little charm shaped like a dog, all of which come together to act as a rattle. It’s perhaps the most infantile object of the bunch, but Stan likes tactile things like this - constantly ends up playing with Kyle’s keys or hoodie drawstrings or whatever else he can get his hands on when he starts feeling especially small - and Kyle just hopes that he’ll like this, that his shame won’t get the better of him when it’s something safe and cute, bought especially for him for the purpose of him fiddling and chewing and shaking.

The second is a different type of teething toy - colourful and solid silicone, with various textured biting points and places to hold, offering more resistance than the softer ring of beads. It’s something more typical, less decorative than the ring - something that could definitely be given to a real baby - but it’s also perhaps less daunting in its simplicity, if Stan really is overwhelmed by the cutesy, decorated stuff.

The third and final item is an adult-sized pacifier. Its shield is a soft baby blue colour, decorated with a pattern of minimalistic cartoon whales that Kyle knew without a doubt Stan would love.

It’s the first thing Stan goes for.

His eyes are wide, and he’s hesitating a little bit, like a part of him is trying to push back from regression to question this, question the logic and the money and the care and the _love_ that went into it, but Kyle doesn’t want to give him a chance. He would’ve done that first if he believed for a second that big Stan would let any of it happen, but he wouldn’t.

Little Stan’s openness for being loved that big Stan would never even dream of is Kyle’s only hope here, and it’s what he clings to even though part of him really wants the firm logic and kindness of his grown-up boyfriend.

“They’re all yours,” he says gently, picking up the pacifier and placing it directly into Stan’s palm when it becomes apparent the boy won’t pick it up by himself, firmly encouraging him. “I bought them...when you first started getting sad this time. They’re so you don’t hurt your fingers anymore.”

Stan flexes his fingers gingerly around the pacifier, staring down at them. The bruises and patches of blood drawn just beneath the surface that Kyle had seen wrapped around his pen all those days ago are mostly faded, but there’s fresh reddened teeth marks now, little dips in the shapes of the points of Stan’s molars.

“Don’t like it?” Stan mumbles softly, guiltily, and Kyle presses a kiss to his forehead.

“No. No, I don’t like you hurting yourself. So...I thought these would be better.”

He wraps his own hand around Stan’s, around the pacifier, and uses the other to pull the two teething toys closer between them too, voice wavering between addressing a tiny, considerably damaged child and addressing his grown - and equally damaged - boyfriend. “Look. I know...I know this is all still kind of new and kind of scary, okay? And I know it’s easy for you to get embarrassed about all of this. It’s okay. Okay? I get it. But I wanna do this properly. I wanna take care of you. Give you what you need, y’know?” 

He inhales deeply, smells the scent of Stan’s shampoo and the air outside - cold, cold that always seems to cling to Stan - and the faint smell of Sparky and that laundry detergent, the cheap one that barely smells like anything that Stan’s mum uses because it’s the only one Stan can stand, and all Kyle feels in his heart is love that aches. “Even if it’s kind of weird or scary or embarrassing at first, I don’t care. I don’t mind being weird with you. This is what I want. I want...I wanna take care of you, man.”

Perhaps part of him really _was_ sort of banking on Stan being out of headspace to give him a real response to his deeply awkward but just as sincere spilling of his guts regarding this whole...situation, but instead Stan just lets out another soft noise, one of his distinctly overwhelmed noises, and Kyle bites down on his bottom lip before shushing him gently, free hand rubbing Stan’s side soothingly again.

“It’s okay,” he murmurs, then coaxes both of their hands open around the pacifier. “C’mon. I think it’ll be good for you right now. You wanna try?”

And maybe Kyle’s speech did do something, because Stan skips over what Kyle knew would be his first response - the argument that it’s weird, shameful, wrong. Instead, he just nods softly, hesitantly, after a big long pause that made Kyle deeply anxious, and opens his mouth, just like he had done when asking to be fed, and scrunches his eyes shut like he’s afraid. Kyle’s heart aches again, and a laugh that’s a mixture between amusement and sympathy and adoration and something very slightly hysterical bubbles in his throat, but he manages to just quietly pick up the pacifier and fit it carefully between Stan’s lips. He’d assumed it would be a more tense moment than it is when he’d ordered the paci, imagined it full of Stan throwing much more of a tantrum, but he’s silent and mostly still as he gnaws and chews and sucks experimentally on the nipple in his mouth. 

And then something clicks and he _melts_.

He settles down immediately, relaxed like Kyle’s never seen him, and all he seems to have the sense to do is greedily seek out Kyle’s arms again before he’s all but gone, boneless and utterly comfy.

“You like it?” Kyle whispers somewhat incredulously, grinning and utterly enamoured, wondering why the hell he hadn’t gathered the courage and sense to do this sooner, and Stan nods vaguely against his neck. 

He’s asleep in minutes. The pacifier seems to fit his mouth and face perfectly, bobbing steadily as he suckles. It’s a natural addition - nothing awkward or weird or _wrong_ about it. In fact, it feels so undoubtedly right, like another piece of the puzzle that is this whole growing relationship has been set neatly into place, and Kyle feels proud. He feels like a Caregiver.

By the time the movie’s end credits are playing, Kyle has his face tucked against Stan’s soft hair, holding the little protectively to his chest, and is joining him in a nice early evening nap. No one’s coming home until late tomorrow afternoon when Kyle’s parents and Ike come back into town - there’s nothing to worry about, no one to walk in on them, no one to intrude, no homework or deadlines for once, and for a while Stan’s family can be a distant, abstract thought because the world outside the room may as well be a different dimension. 

For now, the two of them are tucked up like they can’t possibly be separated, and the television plays them another kids movie.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you so much for reading!!! <3  
> please leave a comment if you enjoyed, and please please lemme know if you have any requests for little!stan content!! with any partner, platonic or not! i love writing this so much and i would love to do requests for it too!!


End file.
